Week 3

This week I felt like I was finally starting to get a grasp on my project. I had read through all of the material that I was given and feel that I have a great conceptual idea of about the ETM.

Later on in the week I started working on the computer. Grant, my fabulous mentor, helped me load various computer programs to get started on modeling the ETM. I discovered that computers are really great when you get them to work correctly but definitely a pain to troubleshoot. Google has become my new best friend in that regard.

On Friday I was able to graph the salinity of the Columbia River from some archived data. This was extremely promising and I am excited to start doing some modeling.

The Brown Bag Seminar was pretty interesting. Our challenge was to think about how our projects might affect or benefit the native community. My project doesn't really effect them directly. However, the turbid water produced from the ETM kicks up a lot of nutrients that have settled to the bottom that organisms feed on. These organisms can then become food for salmon and other fish which are important to the native community.